Context: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who is on a five-day visit to Russia, made the announcement after his "comprehensive and productive" meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov on the bilateral economic cooperation during which they witnessed signing of agreements on nuclear power and in areas of medicines, pharmaceutical substances and medical devices.

Kudankulam nuclear plant

• Kudankulam, situated in Tamil Nadu, stands as India's largest operational nuclear power plant, featuring two Russian- designed VVER-1000 reactors with a total capacity of 2,000 MW.
• The construction began in March 2002. Since February 2016, the first power unit of the Kudankulam NPP has been steadily operating at its design capacity of 1,000 MW. The plant is expected to start operating at full capacity in 2027, according to Russian state media.
• The reactors at Kudankulam are pressurized water reactors designed by Russia, specifically the VVER-1000/V-412 model, also known as AES-92.
• An Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for the project was signed on November 20, 1988, by then-Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, and Soviet head of state, Mikhail Gorbachev. This agreement aimed at constructing two reactors.
• The project faced a decade-long delay due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
• In 2019, NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited) confirmed the presence of malware in the internet-connected administrative network. However, they asserted that the critical internal network was isolated from the cyber threat. Despite earlier denials, the malware was eventually linked to the Lazarus Group, a North Korea-based hacking entity.